These segments of Burger King security video were released by the city of Chicago on Dec. 3, 2015, in response to a Tribune records request. They show Chicago police inside the fast-food restaurant shortly after Laquan McDonald was fatally shot nearby in October 2014.

These segments of Burger King security video were released by the city of Chicago on Dec. 3, 2015, in response to a Tribune records request. They show Chicago police inside the fast-food restaurant shortly after Laquan McDonald was fatally shot nearby in October 2014.

Officials release video from Burger King related to Laquan McDonald shooting; all footage has 80-minute gap

Chicago officials on Thursday evening released more surveillance footage related to the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer, including footage from a Burger King with an 80-minute gap around the time of the shooting.

Obtained by the Tribune in response to a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, the recordings include 12 camera angles from inside and outside the Southwest Side Burger King on Oct. 20, 2014.

There is a gap in the footage from about 9:18 p.m. to 10:39 p.m., which covers the time when McDonald was shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke on a nearby street.

Lawyers for the McDonald family have alleged the missing footage signals a cover-up by Chicago police who responded to the crime scene.

But police and Cook County prosecutors, who charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder last week, have said there is no evidence the camera system at the restaurant was tampered with.

Prior to the gap, employees can be seen moving around inside the restaurant in the 4100 block of South Pulaski Road.

After the gap, a police officer in a bulletproof vest is seen sitting at a desk in front of a computer monitor in the back of the restaurant. Another officer is seen walking around behind the seated police officer.

Other footage obtained by the Tribune is from surveillance cameras showing the outside of several nearby businesses, including the Greater Chicago Food Depository and a Dunkin Dounts.

Footage from the Dunkin Donuts, across the street from the Burger King, shows traffic building up along Pulaski shortly before several squad cars with their emergency lights flashing are seen responding to the area.

The footage from the restaurant and nearby businesses did not include any audio. But a conversation between officers appears to have been captured on a video as officers reviewed the Dunkin Donuts footage at a Chicago police facility sometime after the shooting.

On Nov. 24, the city released police dashboard camera video footage of McDonald getting shot 16 times in 14 seconds as he walked down the middle of Pulaski. The video was released after a court ruling in a lawsuit by independent journalist Brandon Smith, who had requested video from the shooting, as had the Tribune.

The following day, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Law Department released four additional videos from other police vehicles.

The videos show at least eight police vehicles responding to the shooting, but no video has been provided from three of those vehicles. The videos contained little discernible sound, an issue that city officials are looking into but have blamed on a possible technical problem.

When asked Thursday night why the Tribune wasn't given the surveillance videos from the Burger King and other businesses with the rest of the footage released last week, law department officials said they were still working on preparing it to be released to the media.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 04, 2015, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Burger King footage released - Authorities say no tampering despite gap of 80 minutes" —
Today's paperToday's paper | Subscribe